On 19 September 1991, in the remote mountains on the border of Austria and Italy, two hikers stumbled upon the corpse of a 5200-year-old man. Nicknamed Ötzi, this perfectly preserved iceman is the oldest human body ever found.
He had a copper-headed axe although scientists had long believed that humans in Italy were melting and shaping copper with such precision only about 4000 years ago, i.e. more than 500 years after Ötzi lived.

A neutron texture analysis performed at the ILL could demonstrate that the axe was indeed manufactured in alternate stages of hot and cold forging. This was a major step forward in our understanding of the metallurgical techniques in use thousand of years ago.

Putting on make-up has been a human practice since time immemorial. Several museums have bottles containing remarkably well preserved ancient Egyptian make-up.
The analysis of small quantities of these products using sophisticatd methods has proved that besides natural ingredients they also contain lead-based synthesised products. This means that 3000 or 4000 years B.C. Egyptians used chemistry!

To find out more, the entire contents of a make-up flask needed to be studied without extracting or altering it in any way. This is where neutrons entered the stage.